In her post on last night’s loss Susan asked the ultimate Trade Deadline Question, “Who do we have to bargain with?”

The Answer, of course, is not much unless we are willing to trade a quality everyday player for a package of MLB talent to address specific needs.

Prior posts have examined the few tradeable assets on the major league roster and today we look at the minors where the Answer is the same. The Indians simply do not have many projectable MLB prospects to use as trade bait. Baseball America ranks the Indians’ minor league system 29 out of 30.

The last 10 years of No. 1 picks (2012 is excluded) illustrate the problem:

This list does not include the usual AAA stalwarts (LaPorta, Canzler, Kluber, et al) and some RP depth.

The drafts have improved the last few years but the cupboard is still thin at the higher levels (only 3 of the top 20 are in AAA- 1 of those is Barnes- and 14 are in A or A+). We can’t trade what we don’t have which brings Antonetti back to a willingness to move ML pieces (Choo and/or Perez). A big gamble (not unlike Ubaldo last year) but, based on the above, the quickest and perhaps best way to actually improve the club.

It’s hard to play serious Trade Roulette without any chips. Time to think outside the bun.